Six Men, One Bike, One Gruelling Challenge For Charity

Ahead of the Round Table National Sporting Weekend in Loughborough, the members of Great Dunmow & District Round Table (GDRT) are about to embark on a charity bike ride between Great Dunmow and Loughborough, on a 40-year-old six-man bike.

Loughborough was chosen as the destination as it is the home of the 2017 National Sporting Weekend, which will see hundreds of Table members from across the country come together to compete in a range of different sports.

On the 8th September, the GDRT begin the unusual one-hundred-and-twenty-mile challenge alongside members of the Ongar Table in a bid to raise money for SNAP charity, who do wonderful work for families with disabled children and young adults in Essex.

The bike was built in 1976 by members of Goodmayes Round Table, who then rode it 480 miles to Hamburg, Germany, to raise money for the International Help for Children Fund Charity.

Over the years, the bike has been involved in a number of fundraising activities raising over £500,000 for worthy causes in the process. It has been used on television advertisements, appeared on Blue Peter and even in an episode of Birds of a Feather.

The guys have been the talk of the town around Dunmow, as they prepare themselves for the challenge.

Steve Eccles, Chairman of GDRT talked us through their preparation: “We have spent the past year giving the bike a full ground-up refurbishment, and have been spending the past couple of months learning to ride it, which is just as difficult as it looks!

“The trick to mastering the bike, is to get someone to give the bike a push to start and then for everyone to pedal in sync.”

“There are a certainly a few moments when you want to just shut your eyes and hope for the best, mainly when we are taking on corners and roundabouts.”